The student received his report card. He’s not famous. This March 28, 2024, TF1 economic columnist François Lenglet lists a series of relentless indicators in front of Gabriel Attal. In the euro zone, France ranks 18th out of 20 in terms of deficit and debt. “Only Greece and Italy are doing worse,” laments the professor, before establishing our country as the European champion of compulsory deductions. The Prime Minister accepts and defends his action to redress public accounts in the red.
Here is the government wearing a dunce cap. The executive, champion of budgetary seriousness, is singled out for its generosity. Macronism is hit to the heart. This shifting doctrine has evolved on many subjects. But its economic competence, a political pillar, has rarely been questioned. Now she is. “Whether we approve of our action or not, we are being given credibility on the subject,” observes a Renaissance executive. “We cannot afford to let this image slip.”
The dunce RN fights back
At the back of the class, people are giggling. The National Rally (RN) criticizes the failure of Emmanuel Macron, “Mozart of finance”. The far-right group uses this nickname to mock the head of state, an investment banker before his entry into politics. Inferiority complex ? Shortly supplied with executives, the RN is only too happy to fault this overqualified who has the answer to everything. On Instagram, Marine Le Pen exhumes an interview from December 7, 2021. “I have long wanted to be the good student […]. It’s over, she then said on CNews. I will no longer allow myself to be given credibility lessons by world champions of unemployment, debt and deficit.”
The dunce fights back. The frontist leader is trying to get rid of a trial of incompetence, fueled by her ideological zigzags and her calamitous performance during the 2017 presidential debate. In small touches, she gives guarantees of seriousness, such as this forum in The echoes on the debt. The budgetary crisis is an opportunity for her. By pointing out the supposed incompetence of the government, it attempts to disqualify the critics on its own level. Delegitimize the messenger to kill the message. “She is trying to weaken our image, but that will not make it stronger,” said a Renaissance MP.
“Who is the RN’s Mr. ‘Economy’?”
The presidential camp remains faithful to its line. The priority is to restore the accounts to consolidate its electoral base. All without increasing taxes to preserve its economic coherence, the false twin of competence. A few bad figures from INSEE will not lead to a strategic turnaround. Macronie, which has relegated the opposition of values to the RN to the background, is still targeting its shortcomings. She mocks his fluctuating project and the weakness of his sidelines. “Who is the RN’s Mr. ‘Economy’? Who is there around them?, quips a minister. This argument is smarter than sending them back to History.” A close friend of the president criticizes the economic lessons taught by Marine Le Pen. “Retirement at 60, reduced rate VAT… Tomorrow, she gives the keys to the country to the banks or the IMF.”
These warnings have proven their effectiveness during the last two presidential campaigns. The fear of economic adventure holds back elderly voters, suspicious of the credibility of the RN. But they can reach their limits. The advantage of a program is that you can change it with a snap of your fingers. The RN moderates its project, with denials and doctrinal contortions. Until it becomes a smooth projection surface, and without grip for its opponents. Without irritating proposals, the incompetence argument loses flavor. I don’t say anything, so I’m not wrong. And then the RN has never exercised power. Not being accountable for any balance sheet, he feeds on the failures of his predecessors, as on the debt, to convince of his own solidity. If the top student in class can’t solve the equation, why not send a more modest student to the blackboard?
.